Comparison of different wastewater treatments for removal of selected endocrine-disruptors from paper mill wastewaters

Abstract

There is increasing concern about chemical pollutants that have the ability to mimic hormones, the socalled endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs). One of the main reasons for concern is the possible effect of EDCs on human health. EDCs may be released into the environment in different ways, and one of the most significant sources is industrial wastewater. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the treatment performance of different wastewater treatment procedures (biological treatment, filtration, advanced oxidation processes) for the reduction of chemical oxygen demand and seven selected EDCs (dimethyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate, dibutyl phthalate, benzyl butyl phthalate, bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, bisphenol A and nonylphenol) from wastewaters from a mill producing 100% recycled paper. Two pilot plants were running in parallel and the following treatments were compared: (i) anaerobic biological treatment followed by aerobic biological treatment, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis (RO), and (ii) anaerobic biological treatment followed by membrane bioreactor and RO. Moreover, at lab-scale, four different advanced oxidation processes (Fenton reaction, photo-Fenton reaction, photocatalysis with TiO2, and ozonation) were applied. The results indicated that the concentrations of selected EDCs from paper mill wastewaters were effectively reduced (100%) by both combinations of pilot plants and photoFenton oxidation (98%), while Fenton process, photocatalysis with TiO2 and ozonation were less effective (70% to 90%, respectively).

Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation: A Review of Pulp and Paper Industry Practices and Opportunities

“…This can result in the release of suspended solids and nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which can lead to eutrophication of the receiving water bodies and oxygen depletion (Thompson et al 2001). Endocrine disruptors may be also present in the wastewater (Balabanic et al 2012), though relatively little is known about potential endocrine disruption effects of paper mill effluents on aquatic organisms. For example, plant sterols (phytosterols) may act as disrupters of the hormonal and biochemical systems of aquatic organisms (Kostamo and Kukkonen 2003).…”

The application of advanced oxidation technologies to the treatment of effluents from the pulp and paper industry: a review

“…Particularly, Sevimli (2005) and Balabaniç et al (2012) reported a 20% COD removal improvement when this treatment combination was applied to effluents from a biologically treated corrugated board factory and a recycled paper mill. In turn, Ko et al (2009) reported an increase of color removal, but no effect on the reduction of the COD, when they treated diluted weak black liquor from a hardwood kraft pulp mill.…”

“…Considering biological treatment is not able to remove bio-recalcitrant compounds (Balcioglu et al 2003;Bijan and Mohseni 2004), new trends are focused on incorporating other processes like advanced oxidation ones (AOPs) (Balabaniç et al 2012;Balcioglu et al 2003;Bijan and Mohseni 2004;Hermosilla et al 2012).…”

“…Particularly, Balabaniç et al (2012) reported the removal of selected endocrinedisruptors from a recycled paper mill. Whereas the combination of biological treatments (anaerobic and aerobic) achieved about an 80% removal of different phtalates, photoFenton treatment achieved a 100% removal.…”

An overview on the advanced oxidation processes applied for the treatment of water pollutants defined in the recently launched Directive 2013/39/EU

“…AOPs applied to nonylphenol comprise ozonation (Table S4), electron beam irradiation (Table S5) and comparative stud-ies of different AOPs such as Fentonbased, photocatalysis and ozonation (Table S6). Photo-Fenton and ozonation were compared regarding nonylphenol removal in two reports (Balabanič et al, 2012;Bertanza et al, 2010), one of them comparing also Fenton and heteroge-neous photocatalysis. Using wastewater as matrix, photo-Fenton was the most efficient AOP (Balabanič et al, 2012).…”